Sunday, December 30, 2007

Post-Christmas pouting...and I added more to the previous post


New Years Eve Sneak Peak: I asked the neighbors if I could join in on painting the Año Viejo they were making and set to work painting Buzz Light Years legs. It felt great to have a paint brush in my hand and to be a part of a group project.


My return to Quito was really a low point of my travels. It was hard to leave Otavalo. Every bit of me was saying ¨don´t go don´t go¨, but I was the only person in my hostel and I told my friend Dani I would come back to Quito before she leaves for the Peruvian coast for new years. Long story short, someone got in the back pocket of my little back pack without me noticing and I arrived home without the Flash Memory drives with all of my pictures and word documents on them. There are a few ¨what if´s¨ and ¨if only´s¨ and ¨how stupid of me´s¨still floating around my mind now, but for the most part I have accepted the fact that these things happen, that I am very lucky to have my camera and also very lucky that the storage on my camera is big enough that I have all my pictures since Blue Fields, Nicaragua except none of the video. I have met so many people who have been mugged here that I have decided I am also lucky someone gently stole my things rather than took my whole bag or threatened me.

Still, it was hard to sleep that night. The sense of loss, of violation is a bit much. The only thing that really brings tears to my eyes is losing the pictures and video of my grandparents before I left. Their good bye video. But, when I think about that I remind myself of the last thing my Grandmother said to me as I walked out of her room to leave for my big trip ¨Have a wonderful time, it´s a wonderful adventure, as they say Don´t Sweat It!¨ My grandparents wouldn´t want me worrying over losing pictures of them, that is for sure. I comforted myself by reading my book and resolving to make an effort (for closure atleast) to find my stolen items. I had heard of a place where all of these stolen things are sold, and it seemed worth it to go and try to find my things there.

The next morning I set off with nothing but the clothes on my back and the money in my bra, I had been warned to bring absolutely nothing to the markets where I was headed. It was a bit of a goose chase, Rowena agreed to go along, but was too scared to really go to the markets. She has already had awful experiences being mugged here. So I went to a market some police officers told me about. I went from stand to stand asking about flash memory until I realized that this really didn´t look like the place to find my little electronics. I told an older man who was selling TVs or something unmemorable like that my story and he drew a map, verifying details with another guy he worked with, on how to get to where my stuff might be. I thanked him, and proceeded to head in the exact opposite direction that his map had shown. Not trusting my map reading abilities, he walked with me all the way to the other market. He was surprised that my parents weren´t from South America, and I appreciated the chit chat we had along the way. Soon we were exploring the 2 floors of a market that was stand after stand of everything pulled from the bags of tourists. My helpful guide told me to hold onto his arm and let him do the talking. He patiently went with me looking at case after case of cameras, binoculars, phones, watches, chargers, ipods, and flash memory drives. We asked about any other used flash memory each vendor might have, often interupting the careful work of filing off serial codes from various treasures. I had thought before about being lucky to have lost only the flash memory drives, but now that I was surrounded by all kinds of fancy things people have had stolen I felt almost ridiculous to be so obsessed with getting my jump drive back. I saw one that looked a lot like mine, but was told it had been there a month. Plus it didnt have the clip I had put on it and luckily it seems the vendors will do all they can to do away with serial numbers and still leave other major markers on items. I wondered if I bought this jump drive what I would find on it. Someone elses precious pictures? Homework? Would it be possible to somehow find this person, google them, anything, and get their jump drive back to them atleast?

I left, but I did not lose hope. I returned the next day. Same routine. Visiting a graveyard of things stolen, lost, mourned over, and forgotten. I may return again before I leave Ecuador, but it´s time to move on and take more pictures and live. Live with a few less things to worry about losing.

Something symbolic I do see in this event is that one of the Flash memory drives held my Bonderman Application, my outline of why I want to be here doing this traveling. I think I lost sight of some of my aspirations for my travels before physically losing this document. Just in little ways, slipping into small bouts of purposelessness. Losing my application is a reminder to think about everything I wrote about within those 4 pages, everything I hoped for, feared, anticipated. Thank you Anthony for sending me a copy of my application to re-read and to think about as I continue my tradition of spending the new year holiday looking back (or all around me) at this year and preparing myself to start 2008.

Here in the city, people have begun the new years celebrations. There are vendors all over selling masks to be be worn, and dummys made to look like political leaders, cartoon characters, or just the basic human form for the purchaser to decorate themselves. All of these are being burned on the sidewalks and streets with fireworks and festivities. Last night I went out for Thai food (first thai food on the trip, and half of the restaurants on the Ave near UW are thai food so it´s strange to have gone so long without) with a fellow Udall Scholar that is working down here and he told me that another new years tradition here is to eat 12 grapes and make a wish for each of the grapes.

So tomorrow, I will be spending New Years Eve at big family dinner with turkey and the works at Ave´s home. I am not sure if they uphold the grape eating tradition, but around midnight I will eat twelve grapes and make my twelve wishes and I welcome you to do the same with me at the same time! Midnight here is 9pm in Washington state (6pm in Hawaii?), so choose whichever fruit, treat, food with which you would like to make your New Years wishes, watch the clock and know that I am doing the same and wishing you a very Happy New Year.

Afterwards I may or may not be burning a Bush effigy with the Udall Scholar I met here and his friends, which you are welcome to do as well :)

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